The sky around Death Star Galaxy at true scale, north up and east left, with stars to magnitude 8. The circles show the field of a low-power eyepiece and of 10×50 binoculars.
Death Star Galaxy is a galaxy pair in Serpens, 1.3 billion light-years away
Death Star Galaxy (3C 321, PGC 55317) is a galaxy pair in the constellation Serpens, 1.3 billion light-years away. It shines at magnitude 16.0. It is a telescope object, 6 inches or larger, and it is highest in the evening sky in June.
Galaxy: a system of billions of stars, gas and dust held together by gravity, far outside the Milky Way. Spiral galaxies have a disk with arms; elliptical galaxies are smooth, round or oval swarms of older stars.
Finding Death Star Galaxy from Alphecca
Death Star Galaxy lies 2.7° south of Alphecca, the magnitude 2.2 star. Three fingers held at arm's length cover about 5°.
Death Star Galaxy is highest in the evening in June
The chart gives its height above the horizon at 9 pm through the year, from 60°N to 40°S. It can be seen from the whole northern hemisphere and south to about 66°S, and never sets north of 66°N.
Death Star Galaxy is 1.3 billion light-years away
The light seen from Death Star Galaxy tonight left it about 1.3 billion years ago, long before modern humans existed. It ranks 412 of 422 by distance among the galaxies on Go Astronomy. Distance source: Hubble flow, z=0.0961 (Evans 2008), comoving.
Objects within 6° of Death Star Galaxy
No other Messier, Caldwell or Herschel 400 object lies within 6°.
